Return of the O.C.?

26th September 2006, Tuesday

Still fuming as of the feeling I conceived on the way back from work...

It's the half-yearly appraisal period and over here, you had to grade yourself before your supervisor does it likewise with you...
I was only given the 3 months probation one and all I got was "proficient" from my French supervisor who felt there is of course room for improvement and to impress her in the coming months

Then came the cause of my incense...my former mentor, the gay-boy known as His Beautyness who bore that thick husk when come to justify himself as an employee...

He is more well-known for long lunches, loafing while others are slogging like no tomorrow, and eventually taking credits on others' behalves and even resorting to backstabbing fellow colleagues for his own welfare...
Yet he awarded himself the grade of "Role Model" for most of the sections....which is blasphemous as felt by most of our colleagues ..
The more ridiculous factor is that our "blind" supervisor actually felt he deserves that grading and duly rewarded him with 3 months bonus as of the past May....

He had been bemoaning about his low pay but he is getting like 3.5K a month, which is a gulf of a difference from mine since we both started our careers barely months apart and same degree qualification....
As BY said, he surely is living a charmed life...and despite contemplating on a career switch I think he'll stay put here as there are plenty of valid reasons to...

There surely no justice in this world definitely while we slaved for a petty penny there are others who just get a lot for doing nothing...welcome my new obnoxious colleague...

Japanese word of the day: 不公平(Injustice) He gotta live up to that role model tag soon as we will made him to perform...

Guilt Wars

25th September 2006, Monday

Going into the final week in September, and suddenly it dawned on me that my wedding is barely 20 days away... the ticker for the countdown is deafening now and likewise my missus, we just wanted the event to get over with with minimal hassle and problem as possible...

The weekends zoomed past without much substantial rest once again as we crept out of bed so unwillingly this dusk, hoping it would be a public holiday...the Monday blues sure is eating us up...

On Friday evening as invited, my Sec. Sch. mates Huat and HC came over and we chatted over dinner which consist of Mom's specialty curry chicken and seems like HC got the hunch about the fact that I would be enlisting him as one of the "brothers" and mentioned about some worse-off cases when some stingy newly-weds only rewarded faithful helpers with measly 6 bucks even when the newly-weds themselves are very much well-off...
Nonetheless, I am most probably requesting his help despite that my 5 original "brothers" will appeared as planned.

Our hearty chat went through the night even leading to sometime spent at the nearby kopitiam as we remeniscenced over old days of bewilderment as well as our favorite soccer chat, leading to both of them wooing me back to actively kicking a ball on a pitch...what a daunting prospect...

On Saturday, as I was en route to recover from a niggling running nose and prevent it from deteoriating into a bad cough, I went out early with a great time spent with my buddies, TW and CS in the evening...
Once I had popped a Piriton to ease my blocked nasal passage, I was groggy from that point onwards and for the entire period at La Tendo...
I was supposed to meet TW at 4pm but venue unknown...the problem is that my buddy has no handphone or any other mode of contact and I was left wondering if he got my contact no. in case he wanted to meet from 3pm when he was off from the digital painting class he was moonlighting for...
From CS,it seems like we were to meet at 5pm which was the time I reached Dohby Ghaut station as mentioned by him as well but by then poor TW had waited for like an hour plus...

We rendezvous CS who drove to town at Plaza Singapura where we had our dinner at the Manhattan Fish Co., a direct competitor to Fish and Co.
Since it was only 5 plus in the late afternoon, the seafood joint was still quite empty but we felt the staff was very much reluctant to serve us (much owed to that aura we are so famous of)...
After comfortably sitted and ordered some delicacies, we were ready for some updates from our dear Pepsiman about his personal life which drew such ire from me a week back...
Due to the sensitivity of this issue, all I can say here is that he is going to resolve the relationship tussle soon or so he claimed...

After feeling ourselves with juicy fish fillets and juicier news from our buddy, we suddenly triggered our thirst for some group gaming session which had been our favorite activity all these while...
Naturally TW's luxurious room is the prime choice but CS insisted his "revamped" room would welcome our presence....well so did that sleek 32" black-rimmed Samsung LCD TV which provide us the best gaming environment as we fiddled with his Xbox 360 though with minimal satisfaction...
It prompted us to switch our allegiance back to Playstation as we had some fun with an Aklaim-made beach volley game that we like years back...
However the gist of the gaming evening would be the hard-selling of "Guild Wars", an online RPG which CS had been luring me to join his guild for a while now...

With nice graphics and interesting gameplay, TW and myself were actually quite bought into the idea and it did not help when CS handed me an extra copy of the game which he gotten from a colleague who bought it but got internet problem...
I tried my hand on the game on Sunday despite rabid disapproval from my missus as I had that track record of being highly addictive to gaming (well don't everyone) and now is just the worst timing as we are left with so little time for our wedding with so much to settle...

My participation sure got CS hyped up and gave me a first hand tutorial in the cyber realm last evening and seriously the game play is smooth and all but at this juncture I am still very much confused by the great number of quests and the congested online environment where millions of gamers are playing concurrently...

Sunday afternon is when we meet up with the "sister brood" for a rundown of the actual day event...I was at first not supposed to show face but as Edmund tagged along with Jing, there goes their plan for plotting and scheming on how to make a fool of the groom...

However Edmund's presence did help to tide a barrage of "sister power" with regards to the myriad of ideas they are brainstorming to fool us on that morning when me as the groom will be going to receive the bride...I just hope it really doesn't involve eating food that will make me really queasy and puke like there is no tomorrow....
As we went through the schedule, we then realized the number of details still yet resolved as we were mere weeks away but at least we got ample great help on discussion that afternoon...

More marital issues when we headed back to her place and somehow she and my mother-in-laws had to scream into each others' faces to get things done... At least the adorable Ashley (her cousin's toddler daughter) was here and unlike other kids was as quiet as we wished her to be...

Back home, I wasn't too please that some issues will be clashing and made life kinda difficult for me in the coming weeks, which led me to just sink deeply to understand the new game CS had just passed to me...

At least mid this week, there'll be a break when we send the dowry to her place and I wonder if I would be needed to send inivitations with her to her relatives or could I just relax at home and perhaps engaged in my "guilt wars"....

Japanese word of the day: 有罪 (Guilt) CS shown no remorse when cajoling me to play that game admist my hectic schedule....Psst...thanks btw...

Honeymoon in Jeopardy

20th September 2006, Wednesday

The big news that got me sit up and pay attention while I was half awake on MRT on my way to work was that a sacked commander of the Thai army decided to rally his former troop and held a coup of the Government House in Bangkok while PM Thaksin is in New York for a UN General Assembly...

They successfully ousted the government and the PM from power and set up a temporary council, supposedly having backings from the Thai King and supposedly gaining supports from the civilians...

This entire affair as well as the Muslim militants attack of Hat Yai on Saturday night make me ponder whether the mini honeymoon in Koh Samui, a southern island in the troubled Thailand is feasible especially as safety is put in jeopardy...
I actually enquire from the resort on the status of Koh Samui and whether the recent ongoings have any repurcussions on the safety of the island...
The staff was quick to reply that the island is still basking in serene peacefulness and while advising us to keep a close track to news for further ongoings to the political turmoil of the country, they felt tourism in the resort island shouldn't be affected...

I also went to check out the cancellation of the air tickets I reserved and any cancellation will be around $60 per ticket (USD30) into thin air as well as the 20% of deposit I have paid the resort with (around $20+)..but ultimately safety is paramount as our Ministry of Foreign Affairs had advised to steer clear of it if it proliferated into a civil war in there...

My lass too heard the news and shared the same worries but at the end of the day we hope at the end of the day everything turns out aye okay and we can go ahead with our honeymoon...

Japanese word of the day: 危険 (jeopardy)I am not talking abt that popular American game show...

Make a Clean Break, Man!!

19th September 2006, Tuesday

Less than a month to go towards my big day and everything in my life at the current moment just rotates around the faithful day...

After down with the flu since Thursday, BY followed up with a rather severe case of bronchitis which warrants her to rest at home for the past 2 days...
With tight schedule breathing down my neck as I envision to complete this current project a week before my big day (which follows by a week and a half sabbatical from work)...

Despite my constant whining about her absence which is instrumental for my workflow as I need the sample plates that she usually will create, I think I could be the cause of her sickness to aggravate from a harmless flu...
On Friday when we meet up with YM and LF at Causeway point for dinner when I handed them the wedding invitation cards and endless hours of throwing scorns at our past colleagues which drew the ire of the very unprofessional staff from that Japanese cuisine joint in the basement level of the building as we had took up that place for a good 3 hours while the relentless line is being queued outside as if the food there was really that scintillating...
After dowing 2 glasses of "Pink Lady" (not the 80s J-pop group but a concoction of lime juice, ribena and Sprite), her coughing just worsen into a state that it kept her awake at nights...
Well after so many gym sessions with me, it seems like her immune system is very much still impaired...

While the IMF/World Bank annual meeting is shrouding our island, a popular tourist spot in Thailand, Hat Yai (just at the M'sia-Thai border) was hit by terrorist attacks on Saturday night which brought alarms ringing that the predominantly Southern Muslim seperatists are beginning to target vibrant tourist areas to get their menacing notions through...
It sure makes me wonder if our trip to Ko Samui sure be put on a standstill, now after I had booked the air tickets for it...
My missus seems relentless for her beach get-away and now we hope for some spiritual assurance given by the prayers Mom would normally does when we go on overseas trips...

We headed to my buddy's TW's place to present the wedding invitation to his parents as I wishfuly hope that his entire family whom had seen me grown up from a chubby mommy's boy to a loser mommy's man who is on the verge of getting hitched...
CS was supposed to meet us for that visit and we haven't seen each other since 1989 when his life became topsy-turvy with his love life; but he played us out at the eleventh hour...

He had been really paranoid about his girlfriend been really affected by my wedding (FOR WHAT?!) especially the fact that she might had realized their relationship is heading for doomship as CS had emphasized to us since the last time we met...
I believe they are perhaps at the road of patching back, or my wretched buddy simply just couldn't make a clean break, and dragged on due to responsibilities or obligations or any other shit he felt...

It really makes him looks like a "gu-niang" who couldn't decide what is good and bad for his own happiness..or perhaps waiting that things would work out for the better on itself...

Apparently his lass still restricting his life stringently that even meeting his pals for years now become an activity that would raise her eyebrows with suspicion...

I actually would like them to stay at a couple if he is fine with it and embrace his other half into our tiny circle of friends (despite persistent rejections from TW)...I really hate been a shady acquintance of his that meeting up is always been strained under a microscope...

Well eventually as TW said, he brought it to himself and I do feel he loves to feel self-wretchedness... and as long as he couldn't make a clean break, I really wonder if we could stay as close friends for long...

A long night spent chatting with my buddy for 20 years or so now which is really due to the fact that my wife had been well intoxicated with the tasty wines his old man had offered to her delight and she just "concussed" at one corner... her tipsy state and the late hours meant a costly cab ride back but it cost more than that $19 midnight charge but her precious tablet container which she used to house her millions of tablet supplements which I presumed had dropped in the cab...

This week will be filled with more nuptial preparations with us checking out the finished photographs we had been coaxed to part with an obscene amount of money for...
My lass penned a gathering for her "sisters" on Saturday and would hope that my "band of brothers" could appear...which is highly unlikely...
TW who is giving part-time digital painting classes at 3DSense will surely not be able to make it, Foo who could be in Tokyo now has been reluctantly to let me know when he actually will be back in Singapore..
And of course CS who I am beginning to lose faith in whether he could actually help out for the wedding at all..
Which left with Jerry (who could be sailing) and Edmund (who could be on reservist)...
I am pondering if I should enlist the help my old Sec. school mates, HC and Huat whom I am meeting to pass the invitation cards to this Friday...the most important factor, they both have own transportation

Japanese word of the day:から約束~ka-ra-ya-ku-so-ku~ (Empty Promise) CS could be giving alot these days

2007..Year of Travelling Overseas

14th September 2006, Thursday

Just a quick note on this late Thursday afternoon, minutes away from knocking when the gloomy skies outside wouldn't really help my cause of travelling home...

BY is on MC for today as signs of a bad flu actualized and now I am wondering would she be able to fulfill my work requirements so that I can proceed with my current project with ease and capable to completing before the schedule which is mere days before I'll be heading off for a lengthy marital leave...

Got a SMS stating the fact that I am been called up for a high-key reservist stint and being in April it is blatant that it would be that 2-3 weeks Taiwanese exercise with the navy of the defunt nation which is now actively trying to force their pertulant president to quit his post...
I had rejected an opportunity to go for a similar exercise this year with my marriage as an excuse, which is naturally why they lined me up for the next one...
Many would feel it's a good escapade, a relaxing sabbatical from work with the prospect of heading to Kao-shiung in the Singapore Airlines jumbo jet...
For me anything military, I rather not oblige...however I doubt I can do that this time round...

My lass had been reminded of her overseas vendor training stint in San Fransico (or some other state) in the U.S., highly probable in January...
She will be crossing fingers that the 3 weeks stint will not clash with our Japanese trip in late February
If that is the case for the early months of 2007, either or both of us will be away from home for a while each month with the exception of March...

Add on the autumn Hokkaido trip in October, 2007 will see us going places though in my mind and heart I feel the best place for both of us will be home sweet home...

One worrying factor would be the remedial training sessions on the horizon with the high possibility of me failing IPPT in November...
Usually I grasp the early months, hoping the sessions will clash with public holidays like the Lunar New Year thus we need not attend the full course, but with the Japan trip, I think I can only start in March...
I will then have to clear it by Phase I which be an ordeal task if not I doubt I can fulfill the training schedule for Phase II in April due to my reservist...argh all these regimental army shit is getting to me...if only I need not serve it all...

Japanese word of the day: 海外に(Overseas) Ultimately there's no better place than home...

Who Got My Name?

13th September 2006, Wednesday

A special day in the calendar since I got attached back in 2000, yes...the birthday of the missus...
In the past it had held great significance as of those propaganda-type holidays like St. Valentine's Day or X'mas as well as of our anniversary....
Not a big fan of keeping dates but 13th September will always be etched in the stone...but nowadays due to other commitments with the finance, her birthdays are much subdued affair as of this evening when I would most probably get her a cake and Mom cooking her some traditonal Chinese celebratory cuisine, soup Mee Sua with hard-boiled eggs...
I mentioned that when she turned 25, I would make her my wife and I pretty much keep to that promise....

Last evening, the young Japanese chap who came visit the La Tendo crew departed for home with a new school term to contemplate with...
A get-together dinner penned by Eng Kiong for Yu-kun was well-responded as everyone in the clique turned up for the dinner at Roma Deli's, the highly-recommended and affordable vegetarian Italian cuisine joint at the Shaw Tower at Beach Road...

Vincent who turned up with his missus, Miyano after returning from yet another Japan culture-exchange trip ensured that everyone but most importantly himself was well-fed for the dinner as the feast was garlanded with high carbohydrates such as sizzling potato, pizza and baked rice...

While food was top priority and the deli owners were hospitable to served the food fast and just off the overn to appease our hunger, the star of the evening should be on Yu-kun as he should felt overwhelmed about making such a great number of otakus from a little island south of his country...
The friendship surely would be extended as we even graciously invited him for the X;mas party Eng Kiong was coining with the likes of Chan since August...

The big item on the agenda for an event which seems a bit premature at this moment would be the gift exchange and it broke all frontiers in my past experience as the bar was risen to $100 per head for the exchange which is almost unheard of unless you belong to some high-expenses rotary club or something...

The bigger obstacle surely would be that with more than half of the people involved sinful of over-indulgence with toys, figurines and other anime-collectibles; the organiser (i.e. Chan) felt we should not include those mentioned items in the list and any purchase from La Tendo would be a strict no-no...

Therefore the names was tucked in the bag as the random choosing process begins from the eldest (Vincent) to the youngest (Yu-kun), with me and Eng Kiong representing our spouse to choose another name...

As of many of such random name-pickings in the past, people started moaning about their selection instantaneously and in this case, Miyano, Chan and Karen was fixed in a difficult proposition about what are the possible items to get for their chosen names respectively but the elders like Vincent and Reedy were quick to brush of any notion of a re-pick...

It is quite predictable that Chan might had picked one of the 3 spouses in the draw which makes it difficult to accomplish that gift-acquisition task...
Meanwhile everyone started speculating what gifts could be a possibility with that price tag which personally I felt it is way too much to get average items and too little to get more brand/quality orientated ones...

A wishlist will surely be important to ensure no "prank gifts" such as a year supply of toilet paper (which Vincent mentioned that he wouldn't mind) would be at the horizon and an exciting prospect of what Yu-kun will get from the land which sells on uniqueness and appeal though we might have to do some posting in case he couldn't make it for the party on the 24th of December at EK's place...

For the next 3 months or so, I will kick off the mail circulating and everyone in the clique would crack their heads on what items they would badly want for X'mas as well as speculating who might have gotten their own names from the draw...

Japanese word of the day: ギフト交換(Gift Exchange) I have been thinking of putting a year supply of condoms as one of the items in my wishlist but don't think it would be really appropiate

Preoccupied with Cards

11th September 2006, Monday

The weekend is filled with one big issue at hand...the wedding invitation card..

Collected the entire batch of 280 cards with the printed itinery, .the golden threads which bind the itinery with the card and of course the envelope that will contain it...

The first batch was sent to the La Tendo clique shortly after stopping by the restaurant and what a day when almost everyone (with the exception of Vincent and Miyano) was present on hand to collect the cards from me as the gang was due for a group movie outing for "Devil wears Prada" with Yuu-kun still already in the thick of the action before departing home in a week's time or so...
They even shelled a Sentosa trip on Sunday morning which I duly rejected without any hesistation.. they were supposed to meet at 9 in the morning for a cable car joyride and reality check I woke up at 10 the next day...
Of course the rosy Saturday afternoon at my haunt ended with the notion that Karen was not a bit too please with Ferris been infatuated with her Korean heartthrob, Rain...and the scary part was thatmy good friend which was name refers to a carnival joyride actually was scurrying town after another Korean actor who visited Singapore recently days before...

Sunday was totally spent on tying those golden threads to the cards which can be really getting on my nerves as you can't get them too loose nor too tight and spoil the card itself...
My missus was in charge of writing the names and the addresses on the envelopes, and soon was ticked off at my incompetence in accurately conveying to her the respective addresses...
The entire Sunday was actually filled with gun powder in the air despite the sogginess of the weather as we would be swapping tantrums while trying to get the entire stack done which perhaps highlight the ill-temperament of all these pre-nuptial preparations...
But to tip it off, we headed to the in-laws and she wasn't too pleased with the dormant attitude of her old man when come to getting down the list of names of the relatives they are inviting...
I was at the edge of insanity when she was tiffing with her mom about some trivial issues when we should get everything done, pack up and go back to retire early...
Which we did not and I woke up minutes before 7 this faithful morning to my astonishment...

Back to work, a dull day attached to a training session by the product specialist (who is very much by the book and totally rigid with his protocols) and distributing the cards with the exception of a couple of Caucasian bosses...

Now we have to wait till everyone get the cards, contact them to confirm their attendance and plan the seating arrangement of the banquets....

It might seem that marriage life has transformed to become a chore and surely reality bites a huge chunk of my nerve fibers...well I am just wishing the whole masquerade to be over and the honeymoon at the end of the rainbow to reward our hard work and money spent....

Japanese word of the day: 招待カード (Invitation Card) Employ some cheap labour to help u get it done if you can...

Of Baht and Yen

5th September 2006, Tuesday

Yes I will be officially broke by middle of next month when I draw the bulk of cash out to foot the bill of my wedding banquet, I will see my bank account been drastically dwindled to smithereens... all the hard pain to get the account up and going and will be gone overnight...
But I should have projected that when embarking on the hefty event known as "wedding"...and I am sure it is worth it...

On the good side is that after that I can be assured that there would not be a major money-sapping project to follow up and I can start to rebuild my empire once again...

Opening up my budget spreadsheet last evening, once again I am plotting and scheming in how to recover the account back to the glory days while make sure the joint account of ours will flourish with monthly contributions...

As you know money makes this world goes round and as discussed umpteen times before a poor financial state could cost a loving marriage into an ugly divorce which my wife and myself is plugging all the stops to prevent that from happening...

Of course we will need to indulge ourselves with the fruit of our tireless saving and we have overseas trip planned in advance as you might have known...

The Koh Samui trip is 80% in the luggage and all left to do is get a couple of tickets from Bangkokair which is apparently the monoploy airline serving the Samui Airport which the company invested in as well...
The return air tickets from Singapore can cost up to $330 per person which totally dwarfed what Tiger Airways is offering to fly to places like Bangkok...

I have enlisted the help of Tay-chan to change some Japanese yen with the rate at such alluring state and even got my fellow travellers in coming February such as Chan and Bryan to jump on that bandwagon to commit in such premature money exchange...
I have got that feeling that the Japanese economy will be on an upturn soon if PM Koizumi is ousted from his helm or even the birth of the new baby boy in the royal family...
The combined monetary powers of my lass and myself assured we should be very comfortable for the coming trip but in the back of my mind I am hoping I myself to curb on wasteful spending to save a hefty sum for even the autumn trip...

Combined with the sum I am changing for the Thai Baht for our basic usage in Koh Samui, I am seeing an extra chunk of money which I had expected to remain after the major withdrawal...
Which is why I am not feeling to jovial but I am certain the money will be back into my embrace once again...
Which deems the appraisal much more important for the performance bonus in May next year...urgh...how I wish I am more money at this juncture...

I'll end this blog is a rather sad note as a beloved naturalist host on Animal Planet, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter was killed when been fatally pierced by the barb of a short-tailed stingray in the chest...
He passed on at the age of 44 leaving behind wife Terri and 2 young children...
I have caught his documentaries a few times in the past and saw how enthusiastic & passionate he was with his work in conserving the nature for the good of our next generation...
I am saddened by his passing and mother nature lost a powerful helper.. Rest in Peace, Steve...

Japanese word of the day: 減らされる(Depleted) My bank account in mere month's time...

24 hr on Activation

3rd September 2006, Sunday

11.15am into a beautiful, tranquil Sunday morning and my missus is been "activated" to go back to her workplace to check on her problematic machinery...
In fact it was her own choice to make the effort down to the factory in Ang Mo Kio as the entire weekend had been plagued by her colleagues from the night shift haunting our peaceful slumber with relentless phone call to inquire on the solution to fix the niggling problems of the machinery...
Which is why my poor wife hasn't had a good rest from Thursday evening onwards when she was on MC for a medical check-up at Alexandra Hospital for her nose problem...

The "24 hour on Alert" shit is quite chronic that I wonder if being in the army is remotely close to her situation now....
With the fact that we are embarking on a journey of "Two as One", we seriously need to beef up our account and her desire to focus on her sideline requires a hefty monetary backup as well thus she seems to be bonded to this job for the next year or so...but I truly hope she will find greener pastures...at least those with more succulent grass and need not to be activated to be milk round the clock (you do know I am throwing an analogy of a milk cow...hmmm...not a good way to describe my wife...)

We had went through the financial part as I had been wanting to chat with her about since we had decided to go ahead with the Koh Samui Rocky Resorts honeymoon escapade...
So all in all it may cost as around 2K and that is after me able to claim my flexi-benefits ...damn those blood-sucking conniving holiday makers and of course those "ang-moh" with their huge face value of their currency served on the platter for the resorts to suck on...

The Feburary trip to Japan is also on our agenda at the current moment when I realized that the yen has once again fallen in value now around 1.33 in the market but we can get at least 1.35 from our trusty money-changer...
With 2 trips in plan to the land of the rising sun in 2007, we are contemplating in changing a bulk of yen for usage in the future which might be a double-edge sword especially when you are cash tight... but compared to what we had changed a year back... for every 100,000 yen changed, you actually save as much as $200...

Which was why when chatting with Tay-chan and Chan at LT yesterday we all agreed it would be good to change some money now... just a shame that Vincent is now in Japan at the moment if not his stockbroker friend could be able to get us at an even more attractive rate...

Well the weekend has been characterized with the famous "S-11" sign again, so we just have to be sure we are been employed in a long time to come...
Even considering if the forthcoming IMF meeting would require an extra hand...as an "arubaito" there would be a good opportunity to earn some extra cash...

Japanese word of the day:アルバイト ~a-ru-ba-i-to~ (Moonlighting) I need not to be Bruce Willis or Cybil Shepard to realise I need more moeny